Authenticity is a quality I’ve always been drawn to, in all aspects of life. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m really drawn to authenticity in my own photography and storytelling. When asked to put my vision for my photography into words, I came up with Real Life Time Capsule. The “real” is the authenticity. Recently I’ve given myself permission to let go of “perfection”, embrace the mess, and tell authentic stories that people will really want to see today, and ten, twenty, fifty years from now. It’s been incredibly freeing. The “time capsule” speaks to that notion that is sooo cliche but oh so true: Time flies. The days are long but the years are short. In my five short years of being a parent, I can say without a doubt that it’s true. Childhood is so very fleeting. I know every parent has felt at one point or another that desire to hold on to, or bottle up some aspect of their kid’s childhood. The smell of your baby’s head. The thigh chub. The deep belly laughs. I want to use my camera to capture the here and now, how it looked, felt, tasted, and smelled. Photos can absolutely be that time capsule.

I’ve been working hard on telling stronger stories through photographs, so here’s a short story about Watching Week at the dance studio yesterday. Parents are not permitted to watch dance class, except for the very last class of each session, hence the name “Watching Week”. We look forward to this very special class where instead of just dropping her off, the whole family is allowed to sit through the entire hour-long class to see what our little dancer has been doing all semester. She’s been in this ballet/tap combo class since the fall, and I was really looking forward to seeing all of her new moves! They always start class with ballet, then change to their tap shoes half way through the class.

While we never know what kind of chaos will ensue when we bring the twins to watch big sister, thankfully Grandma was able to come along to be a 3rd set of arms. I think the little ones actually had quite a fun time watching their big sister dance, and I think I may have 2 more little dancers on my hands in a few years!

Well done, Pumpkin! We all loved watching you dance!

If you’d like me to capture your very own Real Life Time Capsule, use the handy dandy “Contact” form to get in touch with me!

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Carrie Yuan is photographer, photojournalist, & filmmaker owner of Yi Li Photography Inc, specializing in on-location modern, documentary family photojournalism and storytelling sessions for families, kids, babies, moms-to-be, and all the important people in your life.
Carrie is based in Seattle, Washington and serves the greater Seattle area, Shoreline, Edmonds, Lake Forest Park, and the Eastside including Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah, and Newcastle.
carrie@yiliphotography.com | 206.395.5160